There are no sacred cows

If there is one rule that President Barack Obama, the Democratic controlled Senate and Republican-controlled House should remember as they reconvene in Washington this week to grapple with the nation’s fiscal challenges, it is this: Nothing is off the table.

Grover Norquist-like anti tax pledges are yesterday’s news. Social Security and Medicare are no longer an untouchable “third rail.” The defense budget is built in many ways on an obsolete world view.

The key will be for each side to give enough to reach a compromise that will get the nation past the immediate crisis, while leaving room to work together on the necessary long-term policy changes that will be the responsibility of the next Congress.